Category — Jawja Politics

[What, precisely, are these Georgia Legislators celebrating?]

1. The New York Times has an article on Big Boi’s hip hop ballet.  We are in no way stating that Atlanta needs validation from the elite newspaper, even if we didn’t read the AJC’s coverage of the same topic.
2. Getting drunk.  Helping animals.  What are two things honkies definitely like?  The Critter Crawl is in Little 5 Points this weekend.
3. The AJC has the summary of this year’s state legislation.  Prepare to be underwhelmed.
4. Dan Radakovich is a glutton for punishment.  LSU has hired an athletic director that isn’t DRad.  GT Sports Blog with a nice get.
5. The Georgia baseball squad, at 9-3, has the best conference record in the SEC.  The Bulldogs swept South Carolina this weekend.  If you are in need of more prodigious coverage take a look over here.
6. Arts related jobs are way up in Atlanta according to the Atlanta Business Chronicle.  Any guesses as to what percentage can be specifically attributed to the 47 movies/tv shows Tyler Perry shot last year?
7. Want to go the East Atlanta Beer Fest for free?  Volunteer here.

[The paternalism continues.]

1. Urban Gardeners new location in East Atlanta Village is having its grand opening this weekend.  It is located at 491-B Flat Shoals behind Sugar Britches.  While the store is pretty pricey the staff are excellent and the selection is varied.
2. The UGA baseball team pounded Clempson last night.  Official UGA has the dirty details.
3. Dennis Dodd has a great article on new Tech coach Paul Johnson.  It seems to us that the chip on Johnson’s shoulder will be uber popular with the angst-ridden male attendants and alumni of the Institute.
4. Cynthia Tucker takes it easy on Mayor Franklin.  In our opinion she is a mayor without a legacy running a government only slightly more efficient than what we got under Bill Campbell.
5. Sunday Sales = Dead.
6. Drive a Faster Car has the 2008 Chastain schedule.  Embarrassing fact - we have never been to Chastain.  Stepford North Atlanta is scary.
7. A few days back PWD did some interesting analysis of the future of Georgia men’s basketball.  Okay, you can go back to obsessing about football now.
8. Potentially free New Pornographers tickets at Cable & Tweed.  Need we say more?
9. Metroblogging with a nice find regarding MARTA’s new operating chief.
10. New bowl game to be played in DC.  It has an ACC tie-in.  Despite the potential for chilly weather it has great travel possibilities.  GT Sports Blog.

[Just gorge yourself.]

1. Braves and Birds talks state of the Thrashers nation. Some of the facts are quite damning.
2. Yesterday we discovered (only in the same sense as Columbus discovered America) a great Gwinnett blog called Exurban Adventures. With nearly 800,000 residents we question Gwinnett’s exurbanity. Here is their take on the “gang fight” at Mill Creek High School. The battle for control of the Mall of Georgia is getting intense, huh?
3. Rusty from RGM has a great piece of Georgia Legislatature history. Did that elicit yawns? It involves booze. See, we knew you drunkards would be into it.
4. FEMA teat, as predicted, available for suckling.
5. Peach Pundit has an interesting local perspective on the Obama race thing. We will not call it a “controversy,” unless, of course, we can say it the British way.
6. Former SEC basketball official going to prison for running a Ponzi scheme. The SEC official was initially investigated by the, uh, well, SEC. Who is investigating yesterday’s crew for the Georgi-Xavier game?
7. AJC gets around to discussing Moreland Avenue development. So, they are only about 2-3 months behind on the story. If this related to Buckhead we guess the response time might have been quicker.
8. CL has a review of the Glenwood, a restaurant in East Atlanta. The EAV was hit hard by the tornado. Make you way over and support the neighborhood with your patronage.
9. GT Sports Blog has the world’s quickest”Where are they now?” Info on Taylor Bennett.
10. Mixed-use development in Henry County. We are guessing that there is no public transportation element. Don’t be fooled by terminology into thinking something is green, or smart development, or whateve.
11. GrifDrift talks about Shirley Franklin defending her daughter’s light sentence via internet pseudonym. If we had caught the same charge as Kai Frankin we would be servicing our prison boyfriend at this very moment.
12. Tondee’s says an elected official was caught whilst being serviced by a staffer. No names yet.
13. Magic City, the Atlanta strip club known throughout the hip hop world, has been repurchased by its original owner.  We once heard Dennis Scott say the club was a favorite spot to take GT basketball recruits.
14. UGA VI was named top mascot in the NCAA tournament.  Yeah, not much consolation.
15. Rep. Stephanie Stuckey Benfield is upset that she was called out for missing so many votes.  Decatur Metro with her excuses.
16. Terrell Pryor to Ohio State.  You are officially the last college football fan to know.
17. South Atlanta High School basketball wunderkind Derrick Favors is the Georgia Player of the Year, according the official beverage of jortsporters.  How can Georgia get this kid?
18. Kudos to Creative Loafing for putting a reference to the Wire in this headline.
19. The Tour de Georgia starts in 31 days.  Why can’t they call it the Tour of Georgia.  The “de” seems silly outside of French speaking countries.  Euro teams Saunier-Duval, CSC, and Gerolsteiner are among the competitors.
20. Tondee’s has an excellent summary of the 2008 Georgia US Senate race.

[Not republicany enough?]

1. The AJC takes a pessimistic view on the Beltline’s future, despite whatever nonsense is flowing from the Mayor’s office.
2. Everyone is gunning to take down newly elected Athens area U.S. Representative Paul Broun. Peach Pundit with the details.
3. Sad architectural news from CL. Don’t worry the Buckhead Library is still standing.

 This from a meeting of the Grant Park Neighborhood Association:

Margaret D. Kaiser, Georgia state representative from District 59. Kaiser introduced her initiative to raise the homestead exemption on property from the current $15,000 to $50,000, phased in over five years. She encouraged members to sign up for legislative updates and asked residents to host yard signs proposing the homestead exemption bill. The original intent of the homestead exemption, said Kaiser, was to protect lower and moderately priced homes, adding that inflated property taxes have increased exponentially. She said she is also working to log all vacant properties in District 59 to be taken into context when property reassessment is done. She asked for volunteers to walk and help log vacant houses, which, along with foreclosures, also contribute to declining property values.

[Dame Kaiser]

Kaiser is right to worry about assessments. Cities throughout the country use assessments as a back door tax hike. To raise taxes this way is both deceptive and economically inefficient.

People need help out there, but is this just straight pandering? It seems a tad irresponsible to cut tax revenues when the city is facing a budget shortfall. Of course, Kaiser is not part of the city government. One thing is for sure if this tax cut comes to pass; Margaret Kaiser’s star will be rising.

[The esteemed Representative, sans culottes lapel pin.]

1. Refuses to commit to buying goods only made in America.
2. Has never denied that his first name, “John,” wasn’t given in honor of the John Birch Society. What are you hiding Senator Kingston?
3. Claims to hate the band America. Once once heard saying, “I know that horse had a goddamned name.” If you hate a band called America you must obviously hate a country called America.
4. Has never denied that he is not the gay love child of Hitler and Mussolini. So what if they were both dead before he was born. His lack of denial seems good enough to label him a fascist.
5. Kills puppies for fun.
6. Disagrees with this website about a plan involving dynamite that might jettison Florida into the Gulf of Mexico, thus creating miles of beach front property in Georgia.
7. When requiring the services of a prostitute he always goes Asian, always.
8. His middle name is “Heddens.” We are pretty sure this means “Death to America” in Arabic. Facts be damned.
9. He is a favorite of the Bush administration. ‘Nuff said.
10. Refuses to wear three American flag lapel pins at the same time. What’s the problem Representative Kingston? We love America times infinity to the infinite power. You don’t even love America times 3.

THE ABOVE IS UNTRUE AND IS INTENDED AS A PARODY TO SLAPPY KINGSTON’S COMMENTS REGARDING OBAMA.

SLAPPY, PLEASE DON’T PUT US ON AN NSA WATCH LIST.

[A very Wes Andersoney looking interior of the Buckhead Library.]

1. Hurrah, hurrah, we are not total whores to development; we’re more like a high class escort.  The Atlanta-Fulton Public Library board has rebuked mega-developer Ben Carter’s $24 million bid to raze the Buckhead Library.   AJC with the filthy details.
2. Peach Pundit is putting up Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears as a future US Supreme Court candidate.  We would like to remind you how much we love pure speculation.
3. Thomas Wheatley takes an opitimistic view of the Beltline slash TAD situation.  They quote someone supporting the elimination of the project’s public transportation aspect.  If this happens we are against the Beltline project.  Also, the city claims it can fund the project via private development rights.  If so, why hasn’t the city been using this option from the start?

1. Hooray for a decent college football game on Thanksgiving day. The Texas-Texas A&M rivalry game will move back to turkey day thanks to a new ESPN television contract. You may never have to watch NFL football again.
2. Braves single game tickets go on sale Friday. Opening day is Monday, March 31. We are going to ask our boss for a half day right now.
3. We have been seeing a lot of signs asking for a higher homestead exemptions in Atlanta. I am sorry, but this ain’t gonna keep people in their homes. It will exacerbate Atlanta’s budget issues. AJC with some coverage.
4. Booze and college football license plates are all that we’re interested in. Peach Pundit talks Sunday alcohol sales.
5. The Georgia women’s tennis team beat the number one ranked Georgia Tech women’s team. GT Sports Blog has your GT weekend wrap up.
6. Here is some nuggets of wisdom from US Representative Jack Kingston (R-GA). Our gag reflex is starting to act up.

[It’s Sonny and Glenn-y(?). Where is Casey? I hope they aren’t talking bad about Jimmy.]

1. Georgia looked damn good against Tennessee this weekend, but a loss is a loss. Georgia Sports Blog, as usual, has the best coverage around.
2. Sonny Perdue is being considered for a VEEP spot. What? At least he has the suffix “y” at the end of his name. Maybe it’s a prerequisite to a Georgian serving in the executive branch.
3. If you are a Georgia-Florida weekend person you need to immerse yourself in this Georgia Trend article regarding Sea Island. I want one, an island that is.
4. Sunday Brunch, late edition from Vinocity Kirkwood, will come later today, hopefully.

[The owner of Aaron’s thinks this is ugly.  We think the business of exploiting poor people through high interest rates is ugly.]

1. Get ready for another year of arguments about how much blanket space a person is allowed to save at the park.  Screen on the Green has been moved to Centennial Park.  AJC with more info.
2. Conservatives are bragging about McCain’s leads in Georgia of 8 and 7 points over Obama and Clinton, respectively.  It doesn’t seem all that awesome when you consider that Bush won by 17% just four years ago.   Georgia Politics Unfiltered has slightly more details.
3. El Bar, the not-so-secret yet secret bar located underneath El Azteca is closing its doors on February 29th.  This would be a brilliant ploy to make the bar less popular (and thus, more secrety).  CL with some coverage.
4. Post Northwest merger Delta will remain in Atlanta according to Peach Pundit.  Sorry Minnesota, you will have to console yourself with your superiority in both curling and speed skating.
5. Kudos to Jay Bookman for explaining why the new transportation is bad for Metro Atlanta.  But we need that bill for the Dooling (population: 168) Bypass.
6. Georgia Sports Blog talks about the measures UGA Athletics has taken to minimize the number of Tennessee fans inside Stegeman for tomorrow’s game.  Our suggestion is holding the National Varmint Hunting Convention on the day of the game.
7. The Buckhead library may be razed.  No jokes here - THIS WOULD BE A TRAGEDY.  AJC with more.